Juggle

Picture the scene.

A person is stood juggling a number of balls. It might be a circus or in front of a beach bar in Ibiza. No matter how assured they appear, occasionally, it looks as if one of the balls will drop to the ground.

In front of them is another person. Smiling. Beckoning the other person to pass over the balls.

Great! Ease the burden. Sling over the balls. Give someone else the job for a change.

But wont that mean the other person will be left juggling the balls all by themselves. What has been gained from that?

Nothing!

So the task at hand is to try and work out which balls to pass over and which to keep. Without stopping. Never dropping.

It’s at this point that you notice not all balls are the same. They are weighted different. Shapes aren’t uniform. Some may even hurt on impact. So you have to keep an eye on the person in front of you, the balls spinning around and then – with sufficient warning – make sure you change direction and send the right ball across. All at the right time.

The next challenge is to make sure the person in front of you is OK, whilst you still juggle and they get ready for the next ball.

Sharing a workload that has been yours and yours alone is not always easy. It takes thought and planning – and confidence. You need to feel confident that every rotating ball you are accountable for, every spinning plate that is your responsibility – will be kept safe from harm.

So that’s where I am at the moment. That’s pretty much where our team has been for awhile now. Planning, growing in confidence and passing balls between each other. Some have got perilously close to the ground of late, but now we can see that – we can do something about it. We can keep them up together.

You might even say it is a balancing act – but that might be stretching it too far.